I have switched out the old placeholder environment graphics in my first level for the actual graphics!
Before, I was just repeating a quickly modelled river object that I slapped an earth/sand texture on. It fulfilled it’s job as a stand-in so that the level would have a ground and it let me implement the level-of-detail-mechanics for environment graphics.
But, they weren’t very pretty. The brown colors even look a little bit post-apocalyptic, I think. So, it was time to start and create the actual level graphics.
Since the first levels are supposed to take place in the eponymous savanna, I needed to find a way to somewhat convincingly depict fields of grass. I don’t want to render actual thousands of blades of grass, and I also want something that fits the cartoon style of the character.
I tried several approaches and I found a way to depict this kind of landscape in a way I’m happy with.
This looks much friendlier already. Also, the grass creates a nice parallax effect in motion (It does not translate well to animated GIFs, unfortunately!)
I have also added the hills at the side as an added detail. It’s fun to create little worlds like this.
I’m not quite done, however, I still want to add trees, bushes and rocks to complete the environment.